Ben Raderstorf

This is not the mission | It’s time to end the D.C. deployment National Guard heroes should be back home preparing for real emergencies. It's time to end the DC deployment.

Read more: notthemission.org

To be clear, this applies to the *National Guard* who are mostly civilians with day jobs and who can be called up in emergencies.

They are very, very different from ICE agents, who really do seem to be embracing the jackbooted ethos: bsky.app/profile/uroc...

Texas National Guard troops arriving in Chicago (via ABC News)

Remember: These are not MAGA stormtroopers. These are everyday teachers and accountants who signed up to serve their country with their spare time. They're being used as political pawns by venal, un-American, draft-dodging president

I genuinely thought this was a parody video.

It’s not.

There is no budget "deal" to be made President Trump in has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

All year, we’ve seen this administration treat appropriations bills less as laws-to-follow and more like Lucy playing football with Charlie Brown. What should make this moment any different? www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

Shaheen, a retiring Dem Rs are looking to flip on shutdown, says of OMB threats on back pay: “It would be a lot easier to resolve the situation if Russ Vought would stop talking.”

I'm on the record saying that Russ Vought will do things during the shutdown that will make his illegal rescissions visible in the way they otherwise weren't. And boy howdy, threatening to ignore the law on backpay is a great example. [corrected]

CA has one of the most accessible and secure voting systems in the country, and with the @governor.ca.gov signature on my bill AB 5, we continue to build upon this success.

I am proud to author this new law to set clear and achievable deadlines & provide all voters with more faith in our elections.

The @newyorker.com daily cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson.

Washington Post economics columnist moves to The Bulwark Catherine Rampell will write a weekly economics and policy-focused newsletter for the anti-Trump media brand.

That the @washingtonpost.com can’t keep @crampell.bsky.social around is damning. Anyone familiar with Rampell’s work would know that it would be compatible with WaPo’s intended editorial direction. But she didn’t want to be compromised. Good for her. www.semafor.com/article/10/0...

How do we connect the dots between what WH's budget director Russ Vought is doing with our tax dollars to the impacts of a shutdown and Congress’s power of the purse? Cerin Lindgrensavage joined @raders.bsky.social to give us the details.

Full discussion 🔗 www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/a-king-who...

New York Times: "Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference." The White House asked nine top universities to pledge support for President Trump’s agenda to help ensure access to research funding.

IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY.

CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM.

During a shutdown, the federal government furloughs all but the most essential employees (the 8chan recruit who posts groyper memes to the DHS X account).

I know I’m just complaining into the void here — but we *know* Strong Towns is wrong on this stuff because other countries manage to build big infrastructure and do ambitious planning, like this gem in Paris, and it works great. Great urbanism can also happen top-down, not just bottom-up!

Good stuff!

'A king who had the purse strings' Cerin Lindgrensavage explains why Russell Vought is to blame for the government shutdown

Really fun conversation with Cerin Lindgrensavage today on impoundments and how Russ Vought broke the appropriations process.

Don't let anyone tell you the minutia of budget processes aren't entertaining!! @protectdemocracy.org

www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/a-king-who...

Read @protectdemocracy.org board member @kschake.bsky.social on yesterday's reprehensible circus 👇

By the same poisonous logic that held only Nixon could go to China, I suppose, only the buffoon who joked on 9/11 about his tower moving up in the tallest rankings after the WTC fell can defund counterterrorism programs in New York without the American political system rising up as one to smite him.

(Pass the NOPE Act)

Heading: Court Ruled D’Souza and TTV Published False Statements Subhead: Creators of 2000 Mules Must Face Trial in Defamation and Klan Act Case

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge just ruled that the makers of 2000 Mules made false statements when they accused our client of voter fraud and that no reasonable jury could find those statements were truthful. Read the decision here
🔗 protdem.org/andrews-MSJ

We are now in the domain of not just illegal impoundments, but targeted illegal impoundments to punish liberal spaces. Not different from what Trump is doing to to universities.

My and @andrewperez.bsky.social’s first piece for our new home; we are up and running at @zeteo.com

Who broke the appropriations process? Russ Vought popped the balloon

At 4:30 ET, I'll be going live with Cerin Lindgrensavage to talk about her article on how Russ Vought broke the budgeting process, impoundment, and the game of "keepy uppy" that keeps our government functioning. Join us! open.substack.com/live-stream/...

www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/a-governme...

Still have a long way to go — but if @governor.ca.gov signs SB 79 we could easily catch up to Texas and Florida!

Sacramento is building more housing than any other city on the west coast — and third in the west overall behind only the sprawl kings, Vegas and Phoenix. @sacyimby.bsky.social

A @cafedujord.bsky.social city council thread of public commenters… largely in support of housing??? Folks, it’s a revolution!

Thank GOD

Instead, we should be working — much as the CA legislature has done with things like SB 79!* — redirect state power to enabling good things (more housing, transit, density, sustainability) not bad ones (sprawl, car-centrism)

*Call Newsom, tell him to sign SB 79! 916-445-2841

Yes, planners can get things dangerously wrong—especially crappy, car-centric infrastructure. But the solution is *not* to empower NIMBYs and stop investing in rail, bridges, and other expensive infrastructure.

All that does is further freeze our cities in the amber of anti-urbanism.

Put differently, all of the recent reforms advancing incremental urbanism in California (ADUs, lot splits, density bonuses, etc.), which Strong Towns loves, were passed from on high by the legislature — often against vicious opposition from "local communities" opposed to new housing!